Pedro Acosta Has No Friends in the Paddock: What Awaits Him at Ducati in 2027

• Move to Ducati for 2027 and 2028, official since 24 June 2026
• 13 podiums, two pole positions and three fastest race laps in two and a half MotoGP seasons, but still no Grand Prix win
• First outing on the Desmosedici at Valencia on 1 December, two days after the season finale

Six years with KTM come to an end in December. What follows is the biggest change of Pedro Acosta’s career so far: an Italian factory team, a new machine and a team-mate every rider has been measured against for years. In a lengthy interview given shortly after the summer break and ahead of the race weekend at Silverstone, the Spaniard talks far less about lap times than about himself. About success, about frustration, about distance, and about why he deliberately keeps to himself in the paddock.

Why does Pedro Acosta have no friends in the paddock?

Acosta deliberately keeps his distance from the other riders because he considers genuine closeness to direct rivals impossible. He describes it as an advantage rather than a loss.

“I’ve never had friends in the paddock, and I’m glad that’s the case because, that way, I don’t have any qualms about overtaking anyone.”

Asked whether he feels like the black sheep of the family, he answers with a maybe. He understands that most riders get along closely and that you can hold a conversation with anyone. Even so, he finds it difficult to be honest with someone chasing exactly the same dream. Anyone who wants to reach that dream will, in sporting terms, walk over dead bodies. And if he cannot be honest himself, he would rather take a step back and keep his distance.

He also places it in a historical context. The great rivalries of the past between Rossi and Biaggi, between Crivillé and Doohan or between Rossi and Marquez were not easy relationships. That very edge, he says, is what MotoGP currently lacks.

Why is Acosta leaving KTM after six years?

Acosta has not entirely made his peace with KTM and says openly that his patience has run out. He sees no short-term route to a race-winning machine.

At the same time he stresses that the manufacturer gave everything it could at every stage of his career. KTM made the Moto3 title possible and supplied all the tools he needed to win in Moto2. Even so, he has reached a point where he needs a new challenge. He does not want to sound arrogant, but since arriving in MotoGP he has been the leading KTM in the field. Had the prospect of a competitive bike been closer, he might have stayed.

“I’ve believed in this project for three years, and I’ve given it one opportunity after another. But I think I can go further, and that’s why I decided to leave.”

What he will miss most, by his own account, are the people. In the smaller classes he rode under the Ajo Motorsport banner, but effectively within KTM’s factory operation.

How does Acosta deal with the missing MotoGP win?

Acosta does not describe himself as successful because the first premier-class victory is still missing. The decisive push to shift that pressure came from his coach.

Last year, handling it was difficult. He believed it was his own fault whenever he failed to win. Anyone who treats something as their own responsibility finds that stress even harder to shake off. His coach Carmelo Morales helped him most, by his own account, to see it differently. Morales has a different view of racing and made it clear to him that there is a hard limit. The problem was that he demanded far more from the bike than it could deliver. Every time, he crashed doing so.

So he learned to accept a different outcome. A fifth place is not bad, and when the package works a podium is possible. That, he believes, is exactly why he has been more consistent this season despite the technical problems in the first half of the year. At Silverstone he finished fifth.

What does Acosta expect at Ducati?

Above all, Acosta expects the excuses to disappear. And he explicitly welcomes that.

He is not someone who points the finger at others to make clear that something is not his fault. Next year exactly that could happen: no more excuses, and if things do not work out, it is his own responsibility. That makes him very happy. He is a very direct type, including with himself, and he sees it as a gain for his career.

“I have no idea what I’m going to find in that garage, but I don’t feel any pressure. Marc is in the final stage of his career and I’m just starting mine.”

Marquez knows everyone at the factory, while he himself will need time after six years at KTM to adapt to a completely Italian garage. The contract runs for two years, and Acosta is planning his arrival in two stages: find the rhythm in the first year, then see what comes of it in the second. The fact that Ducati is giving him a factory seat even though the first win is still missing is something he says he is very grateful for.

He is the first rider since Jorge Lorenzo in 2017 to move straight into the Ducati factory team without having ridden for one of the brand’s satellite squads first. Even Marquez spent a season at Gresini. Acosta responds openly to the comparison with Lorenzo’s move to Yamaha in 2008, when Valentino Rossi set the tone there. He had never looked at it that way. Lorenzo was the dominant 250 rider at the time, whereas he already has three years of MotoGP behind him. He has no expectations. He wants to arrive in Valencia on the Tuesday and see what is possible.

How does Acosta look back on the Montmeló crash?

Acosta describes the crash with Alex Marquez as an experience he could initially only remember in fragments. Today he has a clear picture and is critical of how it was handled.

Immediately afterwards, nothing good was going through his mind. At that adrenaline level you do not think clearly. He had never been involved in a crash like that before, and even after the race parts of what happened were still missing from his memory.

He now takes a critical view of the sequence of events. Restarting the race twice was probably not the smartest decision, because the crash involving Johann Zarco, Francesco Bagnaia and other riders followed afterwards. After two red flags it is easy to lose concentration. The show has to go on, he says, but without riders there is no show.

Fear on track is something he says he does not know. Large insects frighten him, crashes do not. For someone who has raced since childhood, riding a motorcycle is a natural thing, and a crash is part of the game. After heavy crashes he has never doubted that he would get back on the bike the next day.

A factory rider without a supercar

There are no pictures of Acosta with luxury cars or on a yacht. He says he wants to show who he really is, and that it is easy to get carried away. At home, nobody would give him the chance to lose the run of himself anyway.

He does allow himself one small luxury. Last year he bought a camper van and has since spent a lot of time driving around and staying overnight by lakes. With his first pay cheque he had bought a van for training and slept on its seats until he nearly froze in Barcelona. After that he opted for a little more comfort.

His summer holiday fits the picture too. By his own account it was the first proper holiday of his life. He travelled to the United States, went to a NASCAR race and ticked an item off his list.

Where Acosta stands in the 2026 season

Acosta is currently seventh in the riders’ standings. He trails championship leader Jorge Martin by 77 points and Marquez, who is fourth, by 37 points.

Within the brand the gap is clear: Acosta has almost twice as many points as the next-best KTM rider, Enea Bastianini. Ahead of Marquez and Ducati sit three Aprilia riders in Martin, Marco Bezzecchi and Ai Ogura. Acosta has yet to take a Grand Prix win and is one of only four full-time riders in the class without one. At the season opener in Buriram, however, he won his first sprint.

That leaves the 2026 season sitting between two chapters for him. It is both the end of six years with KTM and the run-up to a new era, because in 2027 MotoGP switches to 850 cubic centimetres and Pirelli tyres. Ducati has won the last five riders’ titles.

Acosta is in favour of the series moving towards a Formula 1-style event format. The fans clearly enjoy it, he says, and the riders take part in considerably more events. He recalls that ten or twelve years ago in Spain you could walk into a bar on a Sunday morning and MotoGP would be on television. That is rarer today. If measures like these help the series grow again, he thinks that is a good thing.

He offers no advice to the riders heading in the opposite direction. Alex Marquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio are moving to KTM, and Acosta wants them to find out for themselves. They will be working with exceptional people. In his own first three MotoGP years he worked with Dani Pedrosa among others, which helped him with tyre management in particular. KTM, he says, is growing again.

➜ This article is part of our comprehensive overview: 2026 MotoGP Season: The Complete Overview – Teams, Riders, Calendar & Championship Standings. Find all key information on this topic in one place.

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